Thursday, 28 March 2013

Domain House is a grand neo-Gothic sandstone landmark built
in 1848-49. It represents an important part of early colonial education as it
originally began its life as the High School Of Hobart Town.

The High School was founded in 1848 by a group of leading
Presbyterians and Free Churchmen, including Rev. John Lillie, Minister of St
Andrews Church, Hobart. A grant of land on the Queens Domain was received from
the crown and a building design was requested. The design by A. Dawson was
begun in 1848 by Messrs. Cleghorn and Anderson, Builders, costing approx $3600.

The school officially opened in 1850 and 56 boys were enrolled to commence the
first term of classes. By 1851 there were already 81 pupils registered and
attending classes. By 1859, boarders were being accepted and a junior school
had been commenced. Dr Lillie was the first official Rector. In 1857, Rev.
R.D.P. Harris was appointed Rector and remained in the position until 1885,
leasing the school from the shareholders from 1862.

The objective of the High
School, as originally described, was the ‘instruction of youth in the higher
branches of learning, as taught in superior classical and mathematical schools
in England’, the ultimate objective being ‘to confer on Australian youth the
inestimable advantages offered in European universities’. In 1885, the rights
to the operation of the school were handed over to ChristCollege and the building was sold to
the newly established University
of Tasmania in 1892. It
remained in the hands of the University until the main university campus was
moved to its current location in SandyBay in 1962.

Subsequently the site became home to the TasmanianSchool
of Art for a period of 8 years from 1963 until 1971 when the School of Art
moved to Mt Nelson and TAFE Tasmania took over the use of the building. Domain
House was re-acquired, along with a number of other buildings in the precinct,
by the University of Tasmania in 2011 after remaining basically vacant and
unused for a large number of years and is now undergoing conservation and
restoration work and will find new life as part of the University of Tasmania
again into the 21st century.

It certainly is a magnificent building
that boasts an extensive history of colonial education from some of the
earliest days of the colony through to the current day. It’s great to see the
building being conserved and being actively utilized and available for people
to visit and enjoy and not being left to rot and collapse, or have it
demolished as some any of our precious historic buildings have been across the
country over the years.

It was
founded on 21 February 1804 byLieutenant Governor David Collins, who traveled to the shore via what was then a rockyislandnamed HunterIsland.
The connection to the shore was developed and is now known as Hunter Street. The
island now has a building directly above it. Although the first European settlement
in the state was established further up the river atRisdon Coveby John Bowen a year earlier, that
settlement was abandoned and relocated to join the Sullivan’s Cove settlers. Collins
named Sullivan’s Cove after John Sullivan, Permanent Under Secretary to the
Colonies. Sullivan’s Cove
holds large historical and sentimental value for the city. The cove area itself
is now known as MacquarieWharf and serves as the
mainportfor the city.
Many of the original buildings along theesplanadeare still standing.

Hunter St
is built on the old HobartTown causeway which once joined HunterIsland
to the shores of Sullivan’s Cove. Originally the island was connected to the
shore at low tide. Passengers disembarked from ships on the island then walked,
waded, or were carried to foreshore. The island was the centre of the new
settlement established by Governor David Collins in 1804. It was here stores
were kept under guard, and in the early years it was the site of the gallows
and gibbet where remains of those executed were in full view of new arrivals to
the colony. Collins had a track built to the island, and roadwork
excavations undertaken in 1987 uncovered footprints of adults, children and
oxen, along with deep impressions of cart ruts left in the mud of the old
roadway. In 1820-21 a substantial stone causeway wide enough for two carts to
pass was built by convicts over the original roadway and the first warehouses,
including the Drunken Admiral building, were constructed on the island to cater
for the increasing number of ships docking at the harbor. Brass plaques set in
the footpath today mark the route of the causeway.

Whale oil, timber, wool, wheat, flour, wattle bark, hides
and meat for export were carried to ships in bullock drawn carts. In the first
years of the settlement whales were plentiful in the DerwentRiver
and by 1836 there were nine different whale oil factories employing almost 400
people. However the whales were over exploited and the industry soon collapsed.
The carts also transported imported goods including plentiful supplies of rum,
tea from China, spices from
the East Indies, domestic and industrial products from England and luxury goods from Europe.

The present day Drunken Admiral building was constructed in
1825-26 on the northwest shore of HunterIsland,
partly on reclaimed land. It was built for the Leith Australian Company which
was initially established to encourage Scottish families to migrate to Australia. The
company imported rum, gin, wine, ale, pork, herrings, hams, tea, coffee, mustard,
stationery, saddlery, snuff, and hardware such as paint, whitening, tar, chalk,
nails, implements, iron and cedar. The building was considered one of the finest in the colony,
built of brick with a stone facade and roofing slate imported from Scotland, which
was considered quite an extravagance at the time.

The building included four
store rooms, two offices, a sample room and a three-bedroom residence. The company’s Hobart agent,
Charles McLachlan, who lived in the residence, helped establish the Hobart stock exchange and
chamber of commerce, was a director of the Bank of Van Diemen’s Land, and a
member of the Legislative Council. The building was later leased to Ordnance
Corps for storage, and subsequently as a barracks for its officers and men. It was then used as a receiving depot and temporary
accommodation for military pensioners enticed by the promise of a grant of land
and a horse in return for undertaking a short term of military service each
year. By 1851 it was used by the Immigration Association as a
depot for new arrivals.

Advertisements of the day in Britain encouraged single women and
widows of good character from 15-30 years to better their condition by
emigrating. The first passengers to be housed at the depot were from the Beulah
and included 12 married couples and 10 children along with 169 single women who
were brought to the colony, mostly from Ireland, to work as domestic staff.
The Hobart Town Advertiser of September 2, 1851 reports the ship and depot were
inspected by Governor Denison and his wife who were impressed by the women and
their accommodation. Domestic servants were in high demand and most soon found
work.

In the 1880s the building was occupied by brothers John and
James Murdoch who ran it as a flour mill and warehouse and built an additional
loft. In 1923 it was acquired by Henry Jones and Co and was
converted it for staff facilities with separate dining rooms for men and women.
It became the Drunken Admiral Restaurant in 1978.

Running alongside the Drunken Admiral was Shades Row, a
narrow passage with eight tiny cottages typical of the working class area of
Wapping of which it was part. Wapping was likened to the area of the same name
in London and
was considered to be dirty, full of rubbish, miserable homes, drunkenness and
obscenity, although research suggests its reputation was largely undeserved. However
the houses were interspersed among industries such as tanneries, slaughter
yards, the gas works, open sewage pits, chemical and soap factories.

The Hobart Rivulet ran behind Hunter St and was known as the Gas Works
Straits. It was polluted with domestic and industrial wastes, including raw
sewage and dead animals, and epidemics of diseases like cholera and typhoid
swept through the community. People living in the area were mostly sailors, fishermen and
laborers whose wives and daughters tried to make ends meet while the men were
away by taking in washing and sewing, and going out to do domestic service.
They also worked seasonally at hop picking or in the local jam factories and a
few kept small shops, or pigs and poultry.

The 1987 roadwork excavations also revealed a thick layer of
charcoal and the foundations of burnt buildings from the Great Fire of 1890.
The fire started in Ikin’s Fruit Store and fueled by stacks of wooden crates
spread to neighboring buildings. The whole of Hunter St from the Drunken Admiral down
to the old gas works (next to the site of the present Federation Concert Hall)
was affected by the fire. Most of the men were away and it was left to the
women and children to try to save what they could, with some managing to drag a few pieces of furniture to the edge
of Fishermen’s Dock.

Firemen could do little as the lanes were too narrow for
their fire-fighting equipment. At total of 22 families were left homeless. Many
of the women also lost their livelihoods as their mangles and sewing machines
had burned along with everything else. All but one of the horses kept in a nearby stables were
saved. A mare perished when she had to be abandoned in her stall despite the
brave efforts of a volunteer to blindfold her and drag her to safety. Some pets
and small livestock such as chickens were also killed in the fire. After the
fire homes were not rebuilt, and others were sold or demolished, and were
largely replaced by commercial development, marking the end of Wapping as a
residential area.

Today Hunter St
is one of the most picturesque areas of Hobart. Further along is the TasmanianSchool
of Art, as well as several art galleries with a wide variety of artwork on
display and for sale. The area also has a number of public art installations. Cruise ships anchor at the dock at the end of the street in
the summer and working fishing boats still find safe harbor and add to the
atmosphere of Fisherman’s Dock across the road from the Drunken Admiral.

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Henry Jones was born on the 19thof July 1862. His parents John and
Emma were originally convicts who were sent out two years apart and served their sentences separately and ended up getting married some time later. At the age of
12 young Henry Jones started work for George Peacock his first and only
employer. Working six days a week, ten hours a day Henry Jones pasted
labels on jam tins. At the age of 27, he purchased a share of the factory and
then from these humble beginnings, rose to fame as an entrepreneur spanning
five continents with interests in jam, fruit, timber, mining and shipping.

George Peacock began business in Hobart as a jam manufacturer in 1861. He
bought Nos.31 and 33 Hunter Street,
a pair of dilapidated warehouses in 1869, expanding to No's.27
and 29 by 1882 and a reinforced concrete warehouse was built in 1911. The
fabric of the largest part of the building is of reinforced concrete and is
founded on timber piles under the greater part of its area. When it was built, the technology of
reinforced concrete was quite new and this was one of the ﬁrst constructions
using the material in Australia.
Later just before 1895, George Peacock transferred his jam making
interests to Henry Jones – one of his employees.

All this
originated in the buildings now comprising the HenryJonesArtHotel.
This group of buildings is located on what was once HunterIsland
which was used in 1804 by Lieutenant David Collins, for landing and receiving
of stores. The island was connected to the foreshore by a causeway in about
1820 and a warehouse was erected shortly after. The line of the causeway is
marked by bronze markers in front of the present buildings. Because of insufficient
depth and difficult docking conditions for vessels under sail, shipping
transferred to the NewWharf at Salamanca Place.
However, with the coming of steam, shipping returned and HunterIsland
was developed with land reclamation.

Over the next forty years the premises of the Jones & Co. jam
factory extended in both directions along Hunter Street. In 1903 the two warehouses
next to No.33 were either substantially altered or demolished to make way for
the Ice works and the Cool Store.In 1911, the remaining old
warehouses at the eastern end of Hunter
Street were demolished and replaced by the large
concrete building now occupied by the Centre for the Arts. An article published
in 1922 attributed much of the company’s success to the self-contained nature
of the company as everything required by the company was produced by it, from
the timber for the packing cases to the equipment necessary to manufacture the
specialist machinery used in the factory.

The old warehouses at 27-33 Hunter Street
were used primarily in the production of the tin containers used for canning
jam, preserved fruit and fruit pulp. The 1922 article described the tin-making
operations as they were then practiced in considerable detail and discussions
with past employees suggest that the processes varied little over the years.

Henry Jones and Co’s company motto ‘IXL’ dates from about 1895
and, it is said, derived from Henry’s own quote “I excel, in all the products I
make”. As a brand name this motto was an inspired choice soon forming part
of Tasmanian and Australian folklore. It became instantly recognizable with the
man, his factories and his products. He was the largest private employer in Tasmania and at the
time, the head of the largest private company in the world exporting jam to
countries throughout the world. A comment in the press of the day stated “The
works are comprised in a splendid block of buildings situated on the OldWharf,
including newly-erected brick premise, having 160 feet frontage by 80 feet
depth, with iron roof and splendidly lighted and ventilated.

The works were
almost entirely refitted in 1898 and only the most modern and up to date
machinery was now used in all departments. A new 50-horse power boiler was
erected by Kennedy and Sons of Hobart, and there was another boiler of 30 horse
power, the two supplying the motive power for driving all the machinery
including that employed in the manufacture of packing cases, tins etc. The
entire premises were constructed of stone and brick, of three storeys, with a
frontage of 300 feet by a depth of about 290 feet, and a floor space of 140,000
square feet.

In the boiling room there were seventeen large copper boilers in
which the jam was made. It was said that during the fruit season, the room
would be thick with steam and the air full of the fragrance of boiling fruit.
The smell wafted into the city and Hobart
residents might knowingly remark “Yes, it was apricot jam today”. Messrs H. Jones
& Co. used no fewer than 2,000,000 tins each season, which were all made on
the premises. The IXL factory employed between 150-350 workers, according to
the season of the year…’

Henry Jones died in 1926 and over 5,000 mourners went to his
funeral. Jam however was made through to 1979 when the factory closed down and the brand had become synonymous with quality Australian jams & preserves. The IXL
business was purchased by Elders to become Elders IXL. Much of the factory area
still stands in Hunter St
and parts have been converted into cafés, art galleries, office space and the HenryJonesArtHotel.

Sunday, 17 March 2013

This Gothic Revival style building was constructed in
1846-47 to house the senior members of the Royal Engineers, who were responsible
for arranging all works in the colony. Designer unknown, the building is of
sandstone front and facings, with brick sides and rear, which were subsequently
cement rendered. An interesting feature
of the building is that two of the windows on the northern side are false and
appear to be windows from the outside only. The large area of CrownLand
included the engineers’ parade ground, workshops, houses and, earlier,
works stores, timber yard and jetty, much of which dated from John Lee Archer’s
time as engineer and colonial architect from 1827 to 1838.

The Tasmanian Main Line Railway Company, which built the
railway from Hobart
to Western Junction (and modiﬁed the line to Launceston) from 1873 and operated
it from 1876, occupied the building as its headquarters until the State Government
acquired the company’s assets in 1890. The building continued as railway headquarters
until the Transport Commission was established in 1938. It subsequently became the
railway’s printers and stationery store.

More recently, the building was acquired by the State
Government and restored with funds from Government grants, gifts from
professional engineering organizations and public subscription. The building is
currently leased by the Institution of Engineers, Australia,
and occupied as headquarters of its Tasmania
division and is situated at 2
Davey Street, Hobart,
opposite the GasworksVillage area.

Friday, 8 March 2013

First surveyed in 1807 by Government Surveyor
Charles Grimes, who traced sections of the river. Governor Macquarie,
inspired by the findings, visited in 1811 and named the area Argyle Plains
and the river Macquarie. On his second journey through
central Tasmania, Macquarie
chose the location beside the river for a township

In
1812 a garrison of soldiers was stationed at the ford of the MacquarieRiver
to protect the development of this future town. Other buildings were soon
built and in 1821 the settlement was proclaimed the town of Ross. Governor Macquarie called it Ross after the home of his
friend H.M. Buchanan who lived on Loch Lomond in Scotland. At that time the river
was forded. Later that year a wooden bridge was built and by 1836 the stone
bridge, one of the finest in Australia,
was completed. Ross
was considered ideally situated being centrally located and easily accessible
from both North and South. The good flat country was ideal for farming
and so for supplying food and the river provided a reliable water supply.
Indeed in those early years of the colony, the government operated a large farm
in the district for agriculture and breeding of draft oxen. It was broken
up in 1830 and sold off to private landholders.

The MacquarieRiver was originally
crossed by a ford at Ross. In 1821 a low level bridge was built
consisting of logs laid on some stone buttresses and covered with earth and
gravel. In 1836 this was replaced by the splendid sandstone bridge which
is still one of the historic features of Ross today. Quite rightly the pride of the village,
this beautiful stone bridge was constructed by convicts in 1836. It is the
third oldest bridge still standing in Australia and is recognized as the
most important convict-built bridge in the country. It was constructed on the
orders of Governor Arthur and designed by John Lee Archer.

Built by convicts
its beautiful stonework is the result of two convict stonemasons - Daniel
Herbert and James Colbeck. They were paid one shilling a day. Herbert, who had
been transported for highway robbery in 1827, was freed after the bridge was
completed and is buried in the OldCemetery. He is credited
with the beautiful carvings on the side of the bridge. Experts have described
the carvings as 'possibly the richest achievement of the earlier colonial
period if not the most significant sculpture on any edifice in the
Commonwealth. Leslie Greener, who was largely responsible for discovering that
Daniel Herbert was responsible for the carvings, has written: 'RossBridge
is the most beautiful of its kind today. The carvings have in them that delight
in the shapes themselves that our sculptors lost somewhere in the 13th century’

The military presence remained an important part
of Ross for many of its early years and its influence can still be seen
today. A number of the early buildings around the town have military
origins and several streets are named after battles of the Napoleonic
wars. Some of the military stationed here in those early days were
veterans of these campaigns. As Ross developed it became important not only as
a garrison town but also as a coach horse change and livestock market. In
1826 it became the venue for the first agricultural show in the midlands.
These beginnings are evident in the coaching inns and the fine properties in
the surrounding district.

It also became the site of one of four Female
Factories opened in Tasmania
and operated from 1848 – 1855. The site of the Ross Female Factory can still
be visited and although very little physical architecture remains in place, it
is still considered one of the most archeologically intact female convict sites
in Australia.

Tasmania has an excess of beautiful
and fascinating 19th century colonial towns. Places like CampbellTown and Richmond are famous for their gift shops,
their pretty vistas and their overt tourist appeal. But, of all the early 19th
towns, there is nothing quite the equal of Ross. The secret is that the Midland Highway
(the main route between Hobart and Launceston) by-passes Ross thus preserving
the original, sleepy character of the town. Tasmania was a draw card for early European
settlement for several reasons. Access to the southern waters for seals and
whales was one. Excellent farming districts for stock and grain to feed the rest
of the colony added to the appeal to settle. The third reason, the island was
ideal to send convicts to. The size allowed security of the convicts to be more
manageable.

A road was needed between the North and South of the state. White
man had discovered the original aboriginal inhabitants had already carved trade
routes throughout the state. One such trade route was between the Launceston
district in the North and the "HobartTown" district in
the South. This trade route is now called the "Heritage Highway". The best source
of labour to construct the road was convicts. The cheapest convicts to use
needed less supervision, so low security convicts were used. Places like Ross
were set up at river crossings along the route. The convicts could build and
maintain the road and river crossing (in this case the famous convict built
bridge).

The convicts also had to build the accommodation for themselves and
the officers in the village. As sandstone was more readily available than other
building materials, a lasting legacy of convict built sandstone buildings now
provide the visitor with an amazing experience. These early European settlers
aimed at recreating a familiar environment to them. It is no mistake that the
village is English in style complete with English Elms, cottage gardens and
quaint Georgian style cottages.

Throughout the nineteenth
century Ross was an important stopover point between Launceston and Hobart. As
such it was a horse coach changing point, a town for the local garrison and an
important destination for produce from the surrounding farms. The main
crossroad in Ross is known, with some humour, as Temptation, Recreation,
Salvation and Damnation. The reason for this combination is that on one corner
(Temptation) stood the Man-O-Ross Hotel, on another corner (Salvation) was the
Roman Catholic Church, on the third corner was the Town Hall (Recreation) and
on the fourth stood the Jail (Damnation).
The field gun in the middle of the crossroads was actually used during
the Boer War.

Today it is arguably the
finest nineteenth century village in Australia. It has resisted the
excesses of commercialism and the combination of the tree-lined main street, the
beautiful bridge and river and the location of the WesleyanChurch
at the top of the slight hill, combine to give it a remarkable aesthetic beauty
and tranquility.

The great quality of Ross is that it has not been overly
corrupted by modern tourism. The town is very typically English and, with its
warm Ross sandstone, is reminiscent of the towns which can be seen in the
Cotswolds or in north Oxfordshire. In many ways Ross is a town which has stopped
in time. It is beautifully preserved.

Welcome to my Blog!!

Welcome to my blog, "On The Convict Trail".

Since moving to Tasmania in August 2012, I have been able to indulge in my hobby & passion for Australian Convict & Colonial history. There is so much to see and learn about Australia's colonial past here in Tasmania and not just from the more well known sites such as Port Arthur.

This is very much a hobby for me and I aim to spend as much of my spare time photographing as many of these historic buildings and sites as I can, source some historical information and post the photos on the blog along with any links to sources, official websites and any further links of interest.

The vast majority of the photographs are ones that I have taken myself. The historical photos and some others are sourced from the internet and used for context to help tell the story of the subject. The information for the posts is sourced from websites, webpages, blogs, books, pamphlets, online documents, on site interpretive signs or with assistance from local historical societies. Wherever possible, information & historical photo sources are acknowledged and/or linked at the bottom of the posts. I am very much simply a convict & colonial history fan and try to utilize the best possible information sources I can find at the time of the post so please, if you have some extra, different or conflicting information to what is on the posts, please feel free to email me with your information and I'm happy to update the relevant blog post with new information when I get the opportunity to do so.

I hope you enjoy the photographs, information and links and it may just encourage you to check things out for yourselves and find out about our fantastic convict & colonial history...much of which is never taught in our schools...at least it wasnt when I went to school!

Thank you to everyone who has followed the blog over the past 5 years or so. Also thank you to those who have commented, provided addition...

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